This is, obviously, the holy grail for many injuries and holds out immense hope for amputees etc. etc. There's one thing about it that has me concerned. Darwinism is cruel. It causes the weak to fall by the wayside of evolution and the strong to perpetuate the best of the species. Nature does things for a reason. The question in the back of my mind is: if we fool with this, what are the underlying natural reasons for the gene to be turned off? We aught to be taking a very close look at the consequences of turning on this gene before we start trying to fool mother nature. In short, I'm not against it, I'm just concerned and cautious - are you?
I like to start with Green Eggs and Ham and work up. Eventually, they stop mouthing the words and are able to read whole sentences. Put lots of pictures in the error messages so that they can be sure to understand. Maybe add a 'treat door' in their cubicle. When they click on an error message, they get a candy.
Offer to live at other people's homes and pay cash for any and all services. Move monthly. Buy fake ID. Get psychologically weirded out. Commit suicide because you are such a social leper that you have no one to talk to about the latest gossip about the stars.
I'm clinically obese. I'm 5'10" and I weigh 220 lbs. I should weigh about 175. Lugging an extra 45 lbs. up to 30,000 feet is a helluva waste of fuel. Anyone who has ever flown in a small plane knows that you have to balance the plane out and be very concerned about weight allowance before takeoff. Kevin Smith should just suck it up and take his lumps on his rolls. It's time we charged porkers like him and me for not pushing away from the table. Until then, pass me the Cheetos and kindly fuck off with all your politically correct whining and moaning.
I hate to sound whiney when I'm talking about software that is designed by volunteers and through corporate donations.
The forms design in base is woefully behind all the other aspects of OOo in terms of quality of functionality. Doing simple things like selecting groups of objects, etc. does not work as expected. Considering that Oracle 'owns' OOo, you'd think that some of the tremendous development that is part of Oracle forms could be brought to bear on OOo base.
I've always felt that base has been woefully under-supported and underfunded. It is a very important part of the suite and needs a lot of work.
It would be nice to see a clear uptick in development support for base. It's a critical component in the open source office environment.
First of all, go to http://www.cleardarksky.com/ and search out your location. This website will ensure that you have the best possible 'seeing' for your event.
Secondly, get the students to each learn to use the telescope during the day when the moon is up. This will give them an understanding of how each mirror folds and bends the light in order to bring it to the eye. See if they can work out where Jupiter or Venus are located during the day (if it's not too close to the sun). Explain why telescopes need to move and what angles they need to be set at in order to continue to observe a given object.
Start with the most 'boring' objects first and work up to the moon. This will keep their attention more focused. Bring binoculars and make sure there are a variety of simulaneous activities for them to do so that they are not bored while they wait to use the telescope.
Have them build red LED flashlights so that they do not lose their nighttime/dark adaption.
If you don't already have a computer with Linux, download and burn an iso of knoppix http://www.knoppix.net./ It is completely free software and includes kstars - astronomy software which can show all the objects that you can observe with a 4" scope. Put the DVD in the computer's drive and boot it. No installation required.
One of the main questions you'll get is: Can we see Saturn (or any other object)? The answer is never simple. Depending on time of day etc, you may or may not be able to see Saturn. They need to understand why they can't see Saturn and how they can predict when they might see it next.
Never underestimate what kids take away from an experience with astronomy. They may not refer to it or bring it up again, but it will give them a profound sense of where they are in the universe. If you can open their eyes to one of the fastest advancing fields of science, you will have done a wonderful thing.
While at an all-inclusive resort in Cuba, our vacationing Teutonic friends arrived at dinner in virtual lock-step precisely at 6:00 PM. Orders were barked. The group split into sub-groups, some of whom reconnoitred the dining hall, spread out and 'claimed' tables. The rest proceeded to elbow their way to the front of every line, heap their plates with EVERYTHING and marched off leaving us in a state of shock and awe while the serving staff frantically tried to re-populate the buffet.
But, apart from that, I think that the Brits are out of line with this ad.
I'd like a RAD tool as easy and secure (comparatively) as ORACLE's Designer product to build web app front ends to databases. This functionality should allow for nested queries, PL/SQL, triggers, printing, lookups, commits, rollbacks etc. etc. without all the hassles of having to get deep into the programming to make it happen. It should also allow database roles to be easily implemented with a full suite of tabbed forms and reports. Think MS ACCESS for the RAD part with the power and quality of PostgreSQL behind it - now make it produce Java forms and easily connect to remote data sources while not requiring a third tier app server.
There's probably something like that out there. If so, I'd LOVE to hear about it.
Bing wasn't 'Launched' it was INSTALLED *. There's a huge difference.
*Yes, I realise that some people have actually switched to it - but I'm sure that 98% of Bing users upgraded IE or are turning on Win7 for the first time.
The answer is simple: when Microsoft invited the Linux Samba team to share resources and exchange protocols at their labs, they re-worked the networking protocol so that Win7 would create proprietary (Win7 ONLY) network groups. There is currently no other way to connect to these groups unless you 'upgrade' every one of your machines to Win7. It's a lock-in sales tool. Plain and simple.
I just bought two brand new machines - an EeePC netbook and a custom-built, quad-core desktop. The netbook came with Windows7 Home Basic pre-installed and the Desktop had Windows7 Home Premium. I then installed Ubuntu 9.10 and OpenSuSE 11.2 Linux on each machine allowing me to triple boot.
With all patches and updates, here is the question: will Windows 7 SP1 allow the following to work:
Canon Canonscan LiDE 30 scanner - Win7 Not supported - Ubuntu/OpenSuSE - works perfectly
HP Color Laserjet 3600N networked colour laser printer - Win7 Not supported - Ubuntu/OpenSuSE - works perfectly
NOTES: Fair's fair: the netbook's WiFi Linux driver (both O/S's) will not connect to WEP WiFi APs (WPA works fine).
All Win7 Home versions have had the ability to connect to domains REMOVED. All previous versions of Windows allowed this.
Windows7 Home (all versions) is a DOWNGRADE from Vista/XP in terms of this connectivity.
Microsoft should do the right thing and return this 'feature' to the home edition(s) - you can't connect Win7 to an NAS server for basic backups - for example.
The default NTFS filesystem that Win7 creates is NOT backward compatible with XP/Vista.
Boot times to having network and desktop on the desktop machine: Win7 - 64 seconds, Ubuntu - 32 seconds
Given that Google appears to have proof of pretty serious espionage, should not Bing (Microsoft) and Yahoo! both withdraw their search engines from China as well? This would be the responsible thing to do - if they are, in fact, responsible companies.
What say we lobby Steve Balmer and Carol Bartz (Yahoo!'s CEO) and see whether they have to cojones to fight against what is a very serious problem: Chinese state-funded black hats.
What I don't understand is that the West has made China what it is today. Why bite the hand that feeds it?
Espionage is one thing, disrupting other countries commerce by subverting the basic rules of the internet is economic war. Let's treat it as such.
Nexus users, quit all your whining and belly-aching. When I get caught in a fight between vendors, the solution is bloody simple: conference call all three together and sit back while they hash it out!! That way, any finger pointing gets done by them to each other and they can't pass you on to someone else. In EVERY case where I did this, I got my problem(s) solved.
Psssttt!!! Hehwo! I'm MS Fudd and I'm going to catch us a vectoh gwaphics standahd - but you have to be vewy, vewy quiet about what you awer going to do..
We wiwl pwetend to be fwends wif him - then sneak up on the widdow fellah and bwast 'im!!!
I was hired as part of the launch of Omni magazine and worked with Bob Guccione for a couple of days. He struck me as a complete greaseball opportunist [not that that's a bad thing - Ed.].
Later that year, I was at a trade show in Dallas. His other publication, Penthouse was present as well as his competitor - Playboy.
The contrast between the two companies could not have been more different. The Playboy booth was marginally tasteful and people were laughing and enjoying themselves with the pretty 'girls-next-door' - OK, 'fantasy-girls-next-door'.
The Penthouse booth was full of wary, pouting sluts who paced from side-to-side as they were beeing leered at by the mostly male passers-by. It looked more like a zoo enclosure than a booth.
Omni was somewhat similar in that it wrote in a style that was condescending and often trite. Here or there, I enjoyed an article, but most of it was so fanciful as to be disengenuous.
Instead of whining, it's time to make the switch to a 'real' database: PostgreSQL - http://www.postgresql.org/
It may not be as fast as MySQL, but it's certainly more robust and capable. If you look at the core of ORACLE's design (which is pretty damned good), you'll find that Postgresql has similar design principals.
When it comes to data loss, I'd rather the more robust database than the fastest one.
I've been up close and personal with the education 'system' as past chair of a parent's association, parent of an educator and ex-spouse of another. I've worked closely with two levels of government and I've presented before legislative bodies to ask just what the fuck is going on in the educational world.
The long and the short of it is that technology has about as much impact on education as an electron does on a nucleus.
Education is a bloody mess. It is a co-opted quagmire of politizised bullshit that's so deep that you'd need a chunnel mole to get to the bottom of it. It's all about rules and protecting everyone's ass, not about the kids. (This is not meant as a slag on teachers, it's the way the system is implemented that's the problem.)
If you really want to change the speed and ability with which children learn, here's what you do: focus very intently on the various pedagogic methodologies. Make each school an autonomous unit with the principal in complete control of every aspect of school life. Implement pedagogic triage every three years to determine the most efective way that each student learns. Apply targeted learning materials in a broad spectrum of subjects. Swirl in a minimum of one hour of excersize per day. Make sure that each student consumes no junk food whatsoever and is fed balanced, healthy meals.
Oh, and get BOTH parents involved with their children on a daily basis.
If you manage all that, then, and only then should you swirl in computers. The rest of the world had better step back because our super brained children will take over the world.
Peter Van Loan is the minister responsible. Please let him know that you are really concerned about yet another loss of true freedom imposed on Canadians by a foreign power. http://www.petervanloan.com/home.asp
Don't get me wrong, I love my American cousins. It's the fact that their government is throwing its weight around like an elephant in a glasswares store.
Sherman Alexie is funny, witty and well-spoken. I have read a smattering of his works and find him to be erudite and informative. In fact, I would never have even given a second thought about the guy unless I had not run across him on the Dec 1st, 2009 Colbert Report. His remark about open source being such a problem floored me for the depth and breadth of it's stupidity. Because his statement was so stupid, rather than make an equally stupid remark in return, I have the following challenge:
Sherman, why don't you go to a Linux convention, a LUG group or any other open source forum. Bring a bunch of your books and have an open discussion with the people who are 'stealing' your works. If you were to educate yourself about us as we do about you, I think you'd find a whole new audience. Can I steal a bogus line from a large software vendor? "Get the facts!"... and maybe sell some books!
One other thing that I'd like to point out is that the ubiquity of the products of that same large software vendor is directly related to piracy. If so many copies of Windows and Office had not been pirated early on, there would not have been the nearly universal adoption of the product as a 'standard'.
In short, Sherman, a little piracy will spread the word about your works far faster than putting your head in the sand and using up trees. Speaking of which, do you mind terribly if I loan my friends a hard cover copy of one of your works? If they enjoy them, they might buy something else and spread the word even further.
Microsoft recently opened networking engineers up to the samba people a while back. There was a good synergy between them and a lot of information flowed back and forth.
Fast forward to today: Windows 7 Home edition has had the ability to join domains REMOVED (this was available back with Win 95 through XP). A new networking capability, HomeGroup is available. HomeGroups can only have Windows 7 members. Windows XP, Macintoshes, even Windows Vista, need not apply. In short, rather than implement a cheap (free?) SMB server capability in every machine, yet another proprietary networking protocol has been developed to force users to upgrade (downgrade?).
A new variation on the NTFS file system has been developped too. This means more issues with interoperability between XP and Windows 7 - let alone Samba/Linux.
What I'm trying to say here is that Windows 7 has been very carefully engineered to NOT interoperate on both a filesystem and networking level with XP and cause problems with Samba shares - unles you buy the Win7 Pro version. My suspicion is that the reason for this stems from the intimate knowledge gleaned from the Samba team (NOTE: I have no way of proving this).
Don't cozy up to Microsoft. Stay away from any so-called open-source initiatives that they are putting forward. They are just a ploy to use the openeness against itself. This is a new MSFT's new method of attack on open source.
So, let me get this straight - sure their standards may be open but so's the language:
(From Wikipedia)
Hungarian is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries. The Hungarian name for the language is magyar (Hungarian pronunciation: [mr]), which is also occasionally used as an English noun, such as Mighty Magyars.
In short, if you confuse us all enough but let us think the standards are 'open' will we buy the concept? Maybe the Hungarians might decide on Cobol as the country's default programming language and try to ram it down the EU's throat!! I think it's all a secret ploy to make Hungarian the default world language and this is their one shot at it (while being in 'charge' of the EU). This whole open standards thing is a front.
I have had meetings with senior bureaucrats and politicians in Ontario about FOSS. Moving free software into the government sphere is really difficult. Firstly, the biggest fear is change. If you implement a change which impacts 60,000 employees, if there is a problem, the person who made the decision to change software will be 'implicated' and blamed etc. etc. No one wants to stick their necks out.
The only way to counteract the problem is if you get backing at a very high level (from the Premier and his Cabinet). During the late '90s all the ministries had to convert and conform to one accounting standard. The push-back from all levels was incredible. It was only because people were threatened with being fired that the project got enough traction to be implemented.
This is what Open Source software is up against. It's truly brutal. That said, never give up fighting, but it has to be done at the highest levels.
Slashdot Mirror
This is, obviously, the holy grail for many injuries and holds out immense hope for amputees etc. etc. There's one thing about it that has me concerned. Darwinism is cruel. It causes the weak to fall by the wayside of evolution and the strong to perpetuate the best of the species. Nature does things for a reason. The question in the back of my mind is: if we fool with this, what are the underlying natural reasons for the gene to be turned off? We aught to be taking a very close look at the consequences of turning on this gene before we start trying to fool mother nature. In short, I'm not against it, I'm just concerned and cautious - are you?
I like to start with Green Eggs and Ham and work up. Eventually, they stop mouthing the words and are able to read whole sentences. Put lots of pictures in the error messages so that they can be sure to understand. Maybe add a 'treat door' in their cubicle. When they click on an error message, they get a candy.
Offer to live at other people's homes and pay cash for any and all services. Move monthly. Buy fake ID. Get psychologically weirded out. Commit suicide because you are such a social leper that you have no one to talk to about the latest gossip about the stars.
I'm clinically obese. I'm 5'10" and I weigh 220 lbs. I should weigh about 175. Lugging an extra 45 lbs. up to 30,000 feet is a helluva waste of fuel. Anyone who has ever flown in a small plane knows that you have to balance the plane out and be very concerned about weight allowance before takeoff. Kevin Smith should just suck it up and take his lumps on his rolls. It's time we charged porkers like him and me for not pushing away from the table. Until then, pass me the Cheetos and kindly fuck off with all your politically correct whining and moaning.
The forms design in base is woefully behind all the other aspects of OOo in terms of quality of functionality. Doing simple things like selecting groups of objects, etc. does not work as expected. Considering that Oracle 'owns' OOo, you'd think that some of the tremendous development that is part of Oracle forms could be brought to bear on OOo base.
I've always felt that base has been woefully under-supported and underfunded. It is a very important part of the suite and needs a lot of work.
It would be nice to see a clear uptick in development support for base. It's a critical component in the open source office environment.
Secondly, get the students to each learn to use the telescope during the day when the moon is up. This will give them an understanding of how each mirror folds and bends the light in order to bring it to the eye. See if they can work out where Jupiter or Venus are located during the day (if it's not too close to the sun). Explain why telescopes need to move and what angles they need to be set at in order to continue to observe a given object.
Start with the most 'boring' objects first and work up to the moon. This will keep their attention more focused. Bring binoculars and make sure there are a variety of simulaneous activities for them to do so that they are not bored while they wait to use the telescope.
Have them build red LED flashlights so that they do not lose their nighttime/dark adaption.
If you don't already have a computer with Linux, download and burn an iso of knoppix http://www.knoppix.net./ It is completely free software and includes kstars - astronomy software which can show all the objects that you can observe with a 4" scope. Put the DVD in the computer's drive and boot it. No installation required.
One of the main questions you'll get is: Can we see Saturn (or any other object)? The answer is never simple. Depending on time of day etc, you may or may not be able to see Saturn. They need to understand why they can't see Saturn and how they can predict when they might see it next.
Never underestimate what kids take away from an experience with astronomy. They may not refer to it or bring it up again, but it will give them a profound sense of where they are in the universe. If you can open their eyes to one of the fastest advancing fields of science, you will have done a wonderful thing.
I respecfully take offence to the fact that you ommitted 'considerate' and 'affable' in your description of our American Cousins.
But, apart from that, I think that the Brits are out of line with this ad.
I'd like a RAD tool as easy and secure (comparatively) as ORACLE's Designer product to build web app front ends to databases. This functionality should allow for nested queries, PL/SQL, triggers, printing, lookups, commits, rollbacks etc. etc. without all the hassles of having to get deep into the programming to make it happen. It should also allow database roles to be easily implemented with a full suite of tabbed forms and reports. Think MS ACCESS for the RAD part with the power and quality of PostgreSQL behind it - now make it produce Java forms and easily connect to remote data sources while not requiring a third tier app server. There's probably something like that out there. If so, I'd LOVE to hear about it.
*Yes, I realise that some people have actually switched to it - but I'm sure that 98% of Bing users upgraded IE or are turning on Win7 for the first time.
The answer is simple: when Microsoft invited the Linux Samba team to share resources and exchange protocols at their labs, they re-worked the networking protocol so that Win7 would create proprietary (Win7 ONLY) network groups. There is currently no other way to connect to these groups unless you 'upgrade' every one of your machines to Win7. It's a lock-in sales tool. Plain and simple.
With all patches and updates, here is the question: will Windows 7 SP1 allow the following to work:
Canon Canonscan LiDE 30 scanner - Win7 Not supported - Ubuntu/OpenSuSE - works perfectly
HP Color Laserjet 3600N networked colour laser printer - Win7 Not supported - Ubuntu/OpenSuSE - works perfectly
NOTES: Fair's fair: the netbook's WiFi Linux driver (both O/S's) will not connect to WEP WiFi APs (WPA works fine).
All Win7 Home versions have had the ability to connect to domains REMOVED. All previous versions of Windows allowed this.
Windows7 Home (all versions) is a DOWNGRADE from Vista/XP in terms of this connectivity.
Microsoft should do the right thing and return this 'feature' to the home edition(s) - you can't connect Win7 to an NAS server for basic backups - for example.
The default NTFS filesystem that Win7 creates is NOT backward compatible with XP/Vista.
Boot times to having network and desktop on the desktop machine: Win7 - 64 seconds, Ubuntu - 32 seconds
I won't editorialize - draw your own conclusions.
What say we lobby Steve Balmer and Carol Bartz (Yahoo!'s CEO) and see whether they have to cojones to fight against what is a very serious problem: Chinese state-funded black hats.
What I don't understand is that the West has made China what it is today. Why bite the hand that feeds it?
Espionage is one thing, disrupting other countries commerce by subverting the basic rules of the internet is economic war. Let's treat it as such.
Nexus users, quit all your whining and belly-aching. When I get caught in a fight between vendors, the solution is bloody simple: conference call all three together and sit back while they hash it out!! That way, any finger pointing gets done by them to each other and they can't pass you on to someone else. In EVERY case where I did this, I got my problem(s) solved.
We wiwl pwetend to be fwends wif him - then sneak up on the widdow fellah and bwast 'im!!!
Cawfuw - don't let anybody know!!!
Later that year, I was at a trade show in Dallas. His other publication, Penthouse was present as well as his competitor - Playboy.
The contrast between the two companies could not have been more different. The Playboy booth was marginally tasteful and people were laughing and enjoying themselves with the pretty 'girls-next-door' - OK, 'fantasy-girls-next-door'.
The Penthouse booth was full of wary, pouting sluts who paced from side-to-side as they were beeing leered at by the mostly male passers-by. It looked more like a zoo enclosure than a booth.
Omni was somewhat similar in that it wrote in a style that was condescending and often trite. Here or there, I enjoyed an article, but most of it was so fanciful as to be disengenuous.
In short, I don't miss it.
It may not be as fast as MySQL, but it's certainly more robust and capable. If you look at the core of ORACLE's design (which is pretty damned good), you'll find that Postgresql has similar design principals.
When it comes to data loss, I'd rather the more robust database than the fastest one.
The long and the short of it is that technology has about as much impact on education as an electron does on a nucleus.
Education is a bloody mess. It is a co-opted quagmire of politizised bullshit that's so deep that you'd need a chunnel mole to get to the bottom of it. It's all about rules and protecting everyone's ass, not about the kids. (This is not meant as a slag on teachers, it's the way the system is implemented that's the problem.)
If you really want to change the speed and ability with which children learn, here's what you do: focus very intently on the various pedagogic methodologies. Make each school an autonomous unit with the principal in complete control of every aspect of school life. Implement pedagogic triage every three years to determine the most efective way that each student learns. Apply targeted learning materials in a broad spectrum of subjects. Swirl in a minimum of one hour of excersize per day. Make sure that each student consumes no junk food whatsoever and is fed balanced, healthy meals.
Oh, and get BOTH parents involved with their children on a daily basis.
If you manage all that, then, and only then should you swirl in computers. The rest of the world had better step back because our super brained children will take over the world.
Don't get me wrong, I love my American cousins. It's the fact that their government is throwing its weight around like an elephant in a glasswares store.
Sherman, why don't you go to a Linux convention, a LUG group or any other open source forum. Bring a bunch of your books and have an open discussion with the people who are 'stealing' your works. If you were to educate yourself about us as we do about you, I think you'd find a whole new audience. Can I steal a bogus line from a large software vendor? "Get the facts!"... and maybe sell some books!
One other thing that I'd like to point out is that the ubiquity of the products of that same large software vendor is directly related to piracy. If so many copies of Windows and Office had not been pirated early on, there would not have been the nearly universal adoption of the product as a 'standard'.
In short, Sherman, a little piracy will spread the word about your works far faster than putting your head in the sand and using up trees. Speaking of which, do you mind terribly if I loan my friends a hard cover copy of one of your works? If they enjoy them, they might buy something else and spread the word even further.
Fast forward to today: Windows 7 Home edition has had the ability to join domains REMOVED (this was available back with Win 95 through XP). A new networking capability, HomeGroup is available. HomeGroups can only have Windows 7 members. Windows XP, Macintoshes, even Windows Vista, need not apply. In short, rather than implement a cheap (free?) SMB server capability in every machine, yet another proprietary networking protocol has been developed to force users to upgrade (downgrade?).
A new variation on the NTFS file system has been developped too. This means more issues with interoperability between XP and Windows 7 - let alone Samba/Linux.
What I'm trying to say here is that Windows 7 has been very carefully engineered to NOT interoperate on both a filesystem and networking level with XP and cause problems with Samba shares - unles you buy the Win7 Pro version. My suspicion is that the reason for this stems from the intimate knowledge gleaned from the Samba team (NOTE: I have no way of proving this).
Don't cozy up to Microsoft. Stay away from any so-called open-source initiatives that they are putting forward. They are just a ploy to use the openeness against itself. This is a new MSFT's new method of attack on open source.
(From Wikipedia) Hungarian is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries. The Hungarian name for the language is magyar (Hungarian pronunciation: [mr]), which is also occasionally used as an English noun, such as Mighty Magyars.
In short, if you confuse us all enough but let us think the standards are 'open' will we buy the concept? Maybe the Hungarians might decide on Cobol as the country's default programming language and try to ram it down the EU's throat!! I think it's all a secret ploy to make Hungarian the default world language and this is their one shot at it (while being in 'charge' of the EU). This whole open standards thing is a front.
This should not be on /. - it should be posted on http://freshmeat.net/
Great - just what we need. A fucking computer that is untrainable.
The only way to counteract the problem is if you get backing at a very high level (from the Premier and his Cabinet). During the late '90s all the ministries had to convert and conform to one accounting standard. The push-back from all levels was incredible. It was only because people were threatened with being fired that the project got enough traction to be implemented.
This is what Open Source software is up against. It's truly brutal. That said, never give up fighting, but it has to be done at the highest levels.